I'm Looking For A City For My Personal Project, Any Suggestions? (City Desc. Beneath)

[queerandhere]

So for a personal story I'm trying to think of a city for my characters to live in, but I'm not sure what to choose. I need a relatively big, crowded, dirty and in some places *** city, as well as "modern" (so not ancient with stone brick buildings, as that doesn't really fit the dirty backstreet alley with high buildings image I want). Originally I was going to have it set in Downtown Eastside Vancouver, as being a British Columbian I know the area, but another plot in the story is that one of the characters goes to America b/c "things are better there" and I can assure you no Canadian thinks that, and that wouldn't work for American cities either. Other big modern countries such as England wouldn't really work either. I also need a city that can be *** enough that a kid can be rescued from forced prostitution and basically be unofficially adopted by someone living with a *** apartment with a bad job without social services being aware. The city also needs to be quite diverse, and tolerant enough of LGBTQIA+ that they at least surpass Russia, and with lots of access to drugs and alcohol. Preferably, there's also inner city schools, but that isn't required. If you have any suggestions, please tell me!

[Jackdaw33]

I get the first 4 letters but what does the rest stand for?

LGBTQIA+

[queerandhere]

@Jackdaw33 queer, intersex, acesexual

[queerandhere]

*asexual

[Jackdaw33]

But surely the Q is redundant? If you are any of the first four letters you are by definition queer.

[queerandhere]

l and g are just homosexual, b is bisexual, so queer refers to any other sexualites. Also, as much as I do like explaining this, what does this have to do with cities??

[Jackdaw33]

I shan't enquire as to what 'other sexualities' are.

Anyway, it's a pity you ruled out England as either Manchester or Liverpool would have fitted the bill perfectly.

[queerandhere]

I could use them, but I don't know how they would think of America. I'll probably use something in England if I can't find anything else though.

[queerandhere]

Honestly I think I'll just go with them as I don't want to wait for anything else.

[Old_Geezer]

My knowledge is too limited to give a knowingly ideal answer but the descriptions of the city suggested maybe somewhere in South America ? Or even Mexico if your character can get past Trump's wall. Or perhaps in Cuba somewhere, not that I know much about their views on sexual preferences.

[Old_Geezer]

By the way, seeming to have been decided after just 2am to 4am seems not to have given many a chance to comment.

[JJ109]

Bangkok is all those things!

[waterboatman]

Malacca in the 60's fills all you criteria.

[atalanta]

Naples, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Rio,

[237SJ]

Was also going to say - sounds like Bangkok!

[jno]

for what it's worth, Vancouver has in fact been used as a stand-in for New York and other cities in quite a few movies - it hasn't got the same recognisable skyscrapers, of course, but filmmakers seem to think it otherwise has the right "feel".

http://uk.businessinsider.com/vancouver-stands-in-for-cities-in-movies-2015-10

I'm not sure if you're writing, filming or what, but a city is as modern/ancient/crowded/deserted as you make it.